RoboCop 3 is an out-of-the-can product representing a complete failure of imagination. It was bad enough seeing products like this back in the 8-bit days, but when this is the best that Acclaim can give us on the Genesis, it's time to do some serious rethinking about licenses and why software publishers purchase them.

If you're a big fan of RoboCop, or decent side-scrolling action/adventure shooters, then this game is a must. It's familiar fare that offers some interesting features like the message bar and the Repair Section. If your NES neighborhood is in trouble, you can call the police, or better yet, call RoboCop.

Boasting graphics reminiscent of the original NES Batman, Robocop 3 offers strong head-to-head battle action across a scrolling landscape of varying heights. The action moves at a decent pace, with the prerequisite bosses and enhancement cinemas, but the gameplay, although awkward at times, is still fun.

Late in the game,
RoboCop acquires a jetpack which he must use to ﬂy through the
level, picking up fuel icons along the way. It’s not quite as good as
the original, but solid on its own and still worth a play.

I don't know, but what really rankles is that Ocean can produce a game as brilliant as The Addams Family and follow it with this! Come on Ocean, if you set such high standards you should live up to them.

Compared to the dreaded Lethal Weapon (a much better film than game), this game is quite good, but play a few rounds of the awesome Judge Dredd (a much better game than film) and you'll see just how much better RoboCop 3 (lame on both accounts) could have been.

The biggest disappointment is that the art isn’t that bad, and the controls work perfectly well, so there’s no reason for this game to turn out like it did. Still, even if it worked flawlessly, five platform levels would only be worth a rental. Maybe that (and the notoriously short “movie game” development time) sapped any interest they had in making the arcade formula shine as a full-priced home title. So, there you go. RoboCop 3 is a shoddy movie tie-in, and is not worth your time – but you already knew that.

Finding positive points to speak about with Robocop 3 is hard enough to do on its own, but the fact remains that Robocop hasn't been treated all that well in the video game world. I remember pumping quarters into the old arcade game when I was a kid, and I remember having a blast doing so. The NES version of the game wasn't bad either, but after that, any game featuring Robocop just hasn't been able to do the justice that the character so richly deserves (and don't get me started on the first-person shooter take on Robocop released on the Xbox a few years back). That is, besides the excellent Robocop vs. The Terminator, which ironically remains not only the best video game use of the Robocop license, but one of the best takes on his fellow cyborg monstrosity The Terminator as well. You'd be much, much better off checking out that game instead, and even if you manage to find Robocop 3 for dirt cheap (which you can), you'd be better off avoiding it all together.

There are five lousy levels in this game. Any more than five would be criminal, and Probe, the developers, knew this. The enemies are always on your tail and they never stop shooting you. It will take three or more bullets to kill them, unless you have an upgrade. But yeah, Robocop 3. It’s terrible, just like the last two.

This is ultimately the lazy tie-in that I feared. It's a generic action game with bad graphics and only five short stages. It's clear that the developers had little time to make a game they had almost no interest in. You could throw a RoboCop 3 cartridge into a landfill and find a better 8-bit action game. Nope, I won't buy that ... not even for a dollar!